Kitty's grin grew and grew as Slytherin scored more hoops. Strellie was just fantastic on a broom, and Roh-Ballentyne was proving to be quite the foe. Aiding the other two Chasers as and when she was needed, Kitty was happy to hold back on the glory in exchange for some beautiful teamwork. If history was going to repeat itself, Slytherin would win by a landslide.

The pathetic excuse for a Hufflepuff keeper actually caught the quaffle - much to the pleasure of the blundering Badgers. She cast a narrow glance at the crowds. They'd shut up soon enough.

Strellie managed to take the quaffle once more and Kitty was by her side. Unfortunately, so was the bludger. Strellie commanded to keep them busy, and the pint-sized princess followed her best friend's commands - until something rang the alarm bells.

Although the quaffle was launched her way, Kitty quickly looked over her shoulder. The Hufflepuff seeker - she was, she'd seen the snitch! What the hell was Harper doing?! His hand-to-eye coordination was clearly as poor as his choice in women.

Kitty ignored the quaffle and pulled back, heading towards the Slytherin goal posts at breakneck speed. Leaning forward, hair whipping in the wind, eyes squinting in concentration. Holding out a fist, she didn't care about the repercussions of her actions - this seeker needed stopping. Holding out a fist, Kitty barged into LeJean, claws flying, curses abundant.

What-?  Figaro had been preparing to give chase to Slytherin Chaser Kitty Li again, but she just... what?

Li ignored the pass and Figaro swooped to pick up the Quaffle where it fell, apparently ignored.  What was she - Salazar's shorts! She was charging towards Helio.  He tried to shout at the top of his lungs, but he was Silenced and all he could do was wave an arm and chase after.

| Beater |

Gracie was just as startled as Fig to see Kitty hurtle towards the second year, but it wasn’t she wasn’t surprised so much as she was dismayed. Merlin knew mixing basic Slytherin aggression with competitiveness was practically a signed warrant for trouble, especially when it came to Quidditch—hell, the sport was bloody enough as it was, people would’ve probably been surprised if their game had lacked its usual bloodthirsty edge. But to go after the second year intentionally, when everyone knew that the majority of the kid’s team were greener than Slytherin’s own arse? Even the Beater—who’d been guilty of something similar just minutes before—knew someone would take exception to that.

Granted, everyone knew it wasn’t her House’s fault that Hufflepuff had such a shoddy team this year, but still. The approval of Hunter’s appointment was proof enough someone had been sure that the rules would keep Slytherin from handing ass the way it normally did.

Her mouth pursed into a grim line, Gracie pushed her broom forward, bringing the ‘stick into a massive curve to herd the bludger closest to the pair (-trio, she corrected herself as Sellaphix shot towards them). There was no way she’d be able to reach them in time (or do anything legal, even if she could), but-

She was a Beater, for Merlin’s sake. She didn’t have to.

“Li!” she hollered at Ny, swinging up her bat a little higher than she had to, to catch the fourth year’s attention if her shout hadn’t—and then she snapped her arm forward, sending the bludger at Heliotrope’s back.

For Kitty, it was the only warning Gracie was able to give.

| Beater |

Naomi floated high over the center of the field as she realized how much work beaters had to do--they had to know where the quaffle was, where the bludgers were, and, when it appeared, where the snitch and seekers were. But at some point it just became a rhythm, or easy beat to follow, and instantaneous decisions became reflex; so as Naomi's gaze caught the bludger on Kitty Li's tail, she also looked over and saw the golden snitch with a half-mer-seeker on its tail and Erin was on another end of the field--someone was a lucky little badger.

But then Kitty Li changed course, and charged for the Huflepuff Seeker like she was shot out of a volcano--the temptation to knock her off her broom with a well-placed bludger was all too tempting--but Gracie seemed to take care of that. While Gracie decided to send a bludger towards the Hufflepuff seeker to ward of Li, Naomi cut in front of the other bludger and let it chase her closer to the Slytherin end of the field and towards the snitch.

With the snitch and the seeker in sight and the bludger clipping the end of her broom, Naomi pushed forward on her broom. Mid-flight, the beater she somersaulted herself around the bludger and pulled herself upright directly behind it. Then it suddenly stopped and tried to charge itself in reverse towards Naomi, but she had her beater bat ready.

Rather than aim it at the seeker, Naomi slammed the bludger towards the snitch, and right before the bludger and glint of gold could collide, the snitch expertly darted around the bludger and seemed to dart into another direction as the bludger continued towards the Hufflepuff seeker

Demitria was distracted by the numbness slowly moving up her leg. This was not good. Not good at all. Nevertheless, she could deal with it as annoying (and if she broke face to admit it, painful) as the sensation radiating from her ankle was. Suddenly, she realized that things had not gone the way she planned at all.

What on earth was Kitty doing? The Slytherin Chaser spun around as her other half shot past her to where the tiny second-year puff was chasing... the snitch? As much as she didn't condone violence, there was NO WAY they were going to lose because Little Miss Hufflepuff caught the snitch. Meanwhile, Figaro caught the seemingly forgotten Quaffle and was racing towards the hoops.

Casting one last glance at Kitty, the Russian pursed her lips and flew at Sellaphix. Before she knew it, there was a bludger flying at the three by the goals. Kitty could take care of herself, but she didn't want the bludger hitting one of them and rebounding towards the goals and distracting Xav.

Thus, Strellie flew at Figaro, body checking the larger boy from above, moving him out of the way of the bludger. Now, if Kitty moved, it would hit the Hufflepuff Seeker dead on. As she slammed into the Hufflepuff, her hands shot out, ready to take the Quaffle from his hands.   

Erin flew in wide circles, high above the rest of his team. His eyes were sharp, but couldn't be everywhere; when Heliotrope went rocket towards a glint of gold, he was nearly on the other side of the field.

Oh hell no. They weren't going to lose to the Hufflepuff team out of sheer luck! Immediately Erin was off like a dog from its leash, but faster, more furious, flying flat against his broom. He streaked across the field but Heliotrope was still much closer, and his only chance now was that she would fumble the catch. He could twist around her as neatly as he could one of those field goals and steal it inches from her groping hand if he had to, though such a move would undoubtedly be seen as low by the Hufflepuff audience. Like he cared what they thought. In professional Quidditch, that was daring.

Fortunately, his team had his back. They didn't want little LeJean to luck up any more than he did. Three of the girls all went for her at once - Kitty with literal claws out, Naomi and Gracie both following up with bludgers. Erin came up swiftly behind the bludgers, ducking and diving their whistling windstream, but the they scattered the Snitch even as he approached, too late for him to act.

He wheeled away before they could change trajectory and turn on him, turning in the direction he'd thought the Snitch had gone and tracking close to the Slytherin stands. He wasn't upset about losing it, this early in the game. In fact, his sour mood was evaporating with every minute in the air. There'd be another chance. Maybe it'd be better if he stuck closer to Heliotrope from now on, because if it came to a race between the two of them Erin knew he could reach it first.

| Seeker |

There were certain attributes to living underwater. For instance, water is a denser medium then air and more dynamic in its forces. Even a land locked loch had a wave energy, the fluid motion of ripples built from the movements of the inhabitants. Many aquatic creatures, and many magical ones, had honed senses for feeling the motion in the water.

In the case of merpeople, it could be the buffer to avoid hitting a fellow swimmer or the extra seconds to avoid the approaching kelpie. Such an ability to feel the waves was lost in the low moisture environment of the air. So Heliotrope had no forewarning on the Slytherin team up against her.

That didn't mean the instincts of what to do in response to an attack diminished at all.

Several things happened in a very short period of time. First, the blow from Li struck Heliotrope in the shoulder before she could stretch out an arm to catch the Gold Snidge. It hurt but the pain barely registered in the fast flowing adrenaline sparking Heliotrope's instincts. She took the blow as a roll, hands twisting the broom so she spun under it and under Li. One bludger (from Slant) grazed her head after the full rotation to being upside down. There was little force from the bludger as it and Helio's head split the tangent so what could have been a knockout blow was just a smack.

The hits did nothing to deter Helio from catching the tiny golden ball. After returning upright from slipping under Li the Hufflepuff Seeker seemed to part with her broom, both hands reaching out to catch...

...another bludger. (from Foley)

Her broom fell downward as Heliotrope was pulled away on the bludger pressed within both webbed hands. The sudden horizontal change of location made her realize that she hadn't caught the right ball. The bludger whizzed around the goalpost. Helio dropped away towards the goalpost, seeing her broom fall a short distance away but not actually beneath her.

Second attribute of living underwater: thinking of movement along each axis of the three spacial dimensions, even if gravity was much stronger without the buoyancy of water to push against her.

Heliotrope kicked off the goalpost to get some horizontal momentum. Now falling over her still falling broom, she grasped for it but the distance was just beyound her reach. She caught the tip of a strand of the lake greens she wrapped the broom with. Yet both student and broom fell apart as the strand of weed merely unraveled instead of bringing the broom closer. Helio grasped for another strand and this one, from the knots made in the broom's bristles, brought the broomstick within reach.

In the final seconds before impact Heliotrope tried to get back onto the broom in flying position. Only just. However, there was so much momentum of her plummet that down was the only option. Heliotrope plowed through the sand on the pitch that encircled the goal zones. It whipped up past her face and into a cloud trailing behind her as her knuckles and legs took most of the friction. After a few feet she lost any attempt of control of the broom at all. It pitched her forward and, tucked into a protective roll, Heliotrope tumbled the remaining length through the sand until the momentum was spent. Her broom bounced once, pinwheeled, and fell in a different direction.

Time elapsed: both the bludger catching and subsequent plummet lasted as long as the harsh seconds of being a (half) human plough.

Heliotrope was not the kind of person who took such a spill lying down. The moment her body stopped flopping about from her crash landing she was up. Running gingerly with high steps she picked up her broom and after a bit of a running start flew upwards at a shallow incline.

Of course, in the chaos, the winged little ball disappeared towards the Slytherin stands.

---

And in the staff section of the stands, the History of Magic professor planned to save this memory to his portable pensieve to relive the nostalgia of his own times on the quidditch pitch while further reminiscing that not even his stunts had ever been this extreme.

Kitty let out a squeak as she managed to deliver a blow to Heliotrope's shoulder, glad to deter the little fiend from catching the coveted snitch. Her vicious offensive however was met with much admonishment from the Slytherin team, and although it was meant for LeJean, the back end of Kitty's broom was thwacked with a wayward bludger.

Gripping her broom, Kitty spiralled towards the ground of the Quidditch pitch, teeth clenched as she tried to maintain control. Hitting the earth, she tumbled from her broom. Ouch.

Immediately getting to her feet, she dusted herself down as a dull ache in her knee quietly sounded in tired, bruised muscles. Sliding onto her broom, she kicked off - but there was a slight panic that there'd be a penalty for her actions. Ah, well.

Hooch bit down on her whistle as she watched half of Slytherin's team move in to distract the strange Hufflepuff Seeker, who'd made the mistake of appearing to be effective at her post.  But the strategy was sound.  Even while Slytherin continue to dominate the Quaffle, one lucky Seeker could end the game and ruin their stats for the season.  Clearly, Slytherin knew where their priorities were.

As much as Hooch might have preferred to give Hufflepuff some leeway, Slytherin was playing fair.  Rough, but fair.  The body checks were clean, the bludgers were doing what they were meant to do and well - Heliotrope LeJean seemed suited to it all.  She took the fall like a much more experienced player and was on her broom quickly.

Hooch shook her head and waved away the crowds who were calling for a foul. 

"Play on!"

Figaro hadn't been paying attention.   He had the quaffle and had been heading towards Slytherin, but he got distracted watching Heliotrope do battle against all of Slytherin's muster.  He might have actually had a clean run at the hoops what with Slytherin defense occupied with the Hufflepuff Seeker.  But he squandered the opportunity by watching and not flying fast enough.

And he was hit from above by Demitria Strelnikov.  He wasn't ready for it and he bobbled the Quaffle and dropped it.  Frustratied, he pushed at Demitria with both hands,[1] trying to get clear and get after the ball he'd dropped. 

Accidentally, his elbow made contact with her face. 

1.	I think outright pushing with hands is a foul? You can like body check, but no outright pushing or striking, right? Just headcanon.

Demitria smirked as she made contact with the Slytherin, though her ankle was still on fire. She kept her head low and her eyes trained on the quaffle which subsequently dropped from his hands to the ground. She was just whirling to follow it when Sellaphix's hands came shooting out in an obvious foul. She tumbled sideways, but managed to pull herself back upright just in time for Figaro's elbow to collide with her face. She let out a shriek worthy of a banshee and scrabbled at her broomstick to stay on. Xavier wasn't in the field this year, so she couldn't rely on him to catch her if she fell. There was no way that she was going to have him abandon his goals either.

She knew she couldn't rely on a foul, even though it was obvious enough. After the cringe inducing stunt that Kitty had pulled on the mini-Hufflepuff, there was no telling what Hooch would call or not. While she was still trying to find her equilibrium, she took advantage of her awkward position to flip over and have her broom clip Fig's. Hopefully that sent him spinning.

She finally righted herself again and retreated, leaving the quaffle to one of the other Slytherin chasers. The Russian retreated and touched her face, hissing at what was going to be a gnarly bruise until Harper just finished the damn game.   

"Sellaphix! Cobbing!"[1] 

Madam Hooch barked the name of the otherwise amacable Hufflepuff.  He was notoriously bad at broomsport but had never given Madam Hooch cause to suspect he was anything more than a Falcon's fan.  She wouldn't have expected such a flagrant foul from him. 

She locked her eyes in his and pointed at him.

"Warning!" 

The ref's stern gaze was damning - another slip up from Sellaphix and she'd ground him.  But he wasn't the only one getting rough.  Slytherin was getting dangerously close to a blatching foul.[2]

1.	Cobbing - Throwing Elbows
2.	Blatching - intentionally colliding with another player.

Since the game hasn't moved in a week, I'm going to pull a crazy-bones.

Figaro was stunned that a foul was called.  On him?!  But Slytherin was...! They were...!  Well, mostly they were just playing better and had practiced before hand and they were... UGH!  Unable to voice his protests (probably a good thing), he just made a long-suffering scowl and tried to get back in the match.

Then he saw it - a long slow pass from Demitria!  Figaro was in good position for it, and intercepted the pass!  Hurrah for Hufflepuff! A shining moment of glory! But he didn't bask too long this time.  He knew he'd have to play smart.

He looked around.  Where was Lorian and Ayla?! He would be clobbered to bits if he attempted any sort of run on Slytherin hoops without them.  He'd learned that from many a Falmouth Falcon game...

Merlin's bollocks, he'd chosen to veer in the right direction! Erin thanked his Seeker's senses as shortly after turning towards the Slytherin stands, he caught a glimpse of zig-zagging gold. Erin threw himself forward on his broom, rocketing past the onlookers and making all the banners whip in the wind he kicked up as he skimmed close to the wooden structures in pursuit of the Snitch.

False start - he snapped nearly to a mid-air halt when the thing damn near skipped sideways and went invisible in that way that Snitches had. Erin prowled the air by the stands, ignoring the calls of the crowd as he kept out a ready eye, close enough to leap forward the second it showed itself again.

| Seeker |

Having survived a crash landing far worse than the Slytherin beat up on the novice Seeker (thanks to instinctual dodging from surviving in an aquatic environment) Heliotrope continued to takeoff, keeping to a banked out of the way spiral on the Slytherin end. Her eyes scanned the area where she had last encountered the ball of her pursuit but that resulted in nothing.

She then noticed a flash of gold from the stands by the opposing Seeker. As the ball appeared to disappear from his sight Heliotrope flew towards him. The ball she took for a 'Gold Snidge' was very nimble like the smallest and hardest to catch fish from Loch Lomond. That gave her an idea as the waterproofing on her broom had unraveled so more lengths of green trailed than before. Her real Kelp Whip was back in her room but a makeshift green, while not long enough, would do in a pinch.

Pausing the hunt, as her broom continued to detour the way she had turned, Heliotrope ripped off one of the waterproofing greens and gave it a hard yank to unravel. Then she turned back to the section of stands where the winged ball had gone.

Within seconds, the Gold Snidge could be spotted above the heads of those on the highest rows of seats. Heliotrope accelerated on her broom. No doubts the other Seeker had spied the ball too. All she needed was the range...

With a familiar snapping motion of her wrist, the lake green shot out its length to wrap around the ball. Now all Heliotrope had to do was yanked it back and the Snidge would be 'fished'...